Linux distribution
Debian 12 Bookworm
Nate Drake burrows into Debian 12 (Bookworm) and is dazzled by the array of new features, including support for non-free firmware.
IN BRIEF
Forget everything you know about Debian. This distro is elegant, supports secure boot and works with proprietary firmware out of the box. Take a live image for a test spin today.
SPECS
CPU: 1GHz
Mem: 256MB
HDD: 10GB
Builds: i386, x86_64, ARM64, ARMhf, mipsel, mips64el RISCV64, s390x, PPC64el
Software packages are chosen for stability over being bleeding edge, hence the choice to use Firefox’s Extended Support Release.
After one year, nine months and 28 days of development, the Debian Project is proud to present its new Stable version 12 (code name Bookworm). Anyone with a passing familiarity with Linux will know Debian is one of the oldest maintained operating systems, dating back to 1993. It’s also used as the basis for a number of Linux distros, including Ubuntu.
The delay in development of Bookworm is typical of Debian, as the OS moved from the Testing to the Stable branch. This involves freezing the existing Testing distro and removing bugs where possible – aprocess that can take years but makes for a very stable operating system.
This may be old news to experienced Linux users but there are some exciting changes in Debian 12. Most importantly, in 2022 the Debian Project arrived at a general resolution about non-free firmware.